RYO KAWASAKI Vinilo y CD

Review: NuNorthern Soul take a brief respite from their BJ Smith series so boss man 'Phat' Phil Cooper can indulge his love for Ryo Kawasaki. Focusing on the period that the '70s met the '80s, Selected Works pulls together five delicious slices of Kawasaki bliss from a boundary pushing discography that spans writing, arranging, producing and playing. For an introduction to Kawasaki, this release is near perfect, taking in sublime jazz through heaving slabs of funk to out-there electronic vibes. Extra context is provided in the extensive sleeve notes from Marc Rowlands that pull from his 2015 interview with Kawasaki. Despite being five tracks long, this still feels like a generous rifle through the Ryo archives.

Review: Last year, Nunorthern Soul unveiled the first part of their Ryo Kawasaki retrospective. While that focused on selected works created by the Japanese jazz guitarist between 1979 and '83 - including a couple of strong nods towards disco - this follow-up looks at material recorded and released between '76 and '80. There's plenty to enjoy, from the Abbey Road-era Beatles-meets-Courtney Pine vibes of "Snowstorm" and George Benson-in-space trip of "Quasar Infection", to the freestyle, synth-laden jazz-funk madness that is "Nogie". Arguably best of all, though, is "Thunder & Sea Gypsies (Medley)", an impossible-to-pigeonhole journey that moves from krautrock style looseness to cosmic jazz via some thrillingly psychedelic wig-outs.

Review: First released in 1986, "Electric World" was the debut single from Ryo Kawasaki and Satellites, a New York-based collective helmed by a computer programmer who built his own MIDI-workstation. Here it gets a timely reissue. It's an intriguing EP, with the title track - which is available in original mix and extended version form - offering a breezy, warm and (whisper it) Balearic mix of cheery synth-pop melodies, addictive female load vocals, dreamy chords, NYC freestyle ticks (the oft-used Fairlight orchestral stab) and beats that sit somewhere between electro and freestyle. Instrumental cut "727" continues on a similar theme, peppering a squelchy bassline and bustling machine drums with spacey chords and oodles of additional percussion sounds.